ROME (Reuters) – Italy and Saudi Arabia have signed an agreement to boost energy cooperation, including for the possible supply to Europe of Saudi-made hydrogen, Italy’s energy and environment minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin said on Tuesday.
The memorandum of understanding, lasting five years, was signed in Riyadh as Pichetto met his Saudi counterpart Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Al-Saud, a statement said.
It focuses on renewable energy, reducing methane emissions, power interconnections, renewable and low-emission hydrogen and ammonia, and carbon capture and storage systems, Pichetto Fratin’s ministry said.
The Italian minister said his country could act as an entry point into Europe for renewable hydrogen and ammonia produced in Saudi Arabia, saying it would be “much closer, more competitive and strategic than other alternatives in the North Sea.”
(Reporting by Alvise Armellini, editing by Cristina Carlevaro)
